


he took me high, then he took me home

by danceyrselfmean



Series: WORLDSTAR [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bisexuality, Brooklyn Accents, Coming Out, Cussing, Frank Ocean - Freeform, I'm serious it's bad, M/M, Music, Natasha is actually a huge softie, Steve discovers hip hop, Talkshow, ellen degeneres - Freeform, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 00:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6350977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danceyrselfmean/pseuds/danceyrselfmean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts with Frank Ocean and ends, like most things, with an American icon coming out on National TV. </p><p>Alright, so there's some stuff that happens in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	he took me high, then he took me home

It all begins with Steve and Bucky really getting into Frank Ocean.

“He's not a hip hop artist, in truth,” Steve explains earnestly. (Steve pretty much exclusively listens to hip hop these days. It's not uncommon to hear him rapping under his breath while doing the dishes. It's not even off-putting anymore.) “But there's something about his music that really appeals to me.”

Natasha very carefully does not laugh. 

“Do you...do you know anything about his personal life?” she asks unassumingly.

“No?” Steve's brow turns quizzical. “Why?”

“No reason.” 

Good one, Romanoff. Just nonchalant enough. She ghosts out of the room.

–

A couple days later, when she and Clint are playing a game where they try to kill each other (playfully, god, it's not like a Mr. and Mrs. Smith thing) she overhears a conversation between Steve and Bucky. She's in a vent. It's a great place to snoop; she can see why Clint does it.

“I've been thinkin'...” Steve starts, and Barnes immediately groans.

Natasha can't see Steve's glare, but she can _feel_ it, all the way in the vent.

“I know,” Steve says crossly, “It's about time, right?”

Barnes laughs and Natasha can hear him cross his arms in that nonchalant way he does. 

“Wasn't gonna say nothin', champ. Go ahead, tell me what you've been thinkin'.”

“I've been thinking, well, there are a lot of kids out there, kids that are hiding, that are ashamed or afraid, that don't have no one to look up to, well I was thinkin' that maybe I could help? Not just by being Captain America, or whatever, but by telling them it's okay, y'know? That it gets better.” 

Natasha knows Steve is blushing. She accidentally lets out a small “aww” and then clamps a hand over her mouth. She hears striding footsteps, and before she can blink a metal arm is dragging her gently out of the vent. 

“Hi boys,” she says, calmly, after she's standing on solid ground. “Fancy running into you here.”

Barnes rolls his eyes. “I'm not even gonna ask, Romanov. I just assume it has something to do with Barton.”

“Who?” she asks, before turning to Steve. “I think it's a great idea.”

“You do?” he says, eyes wide. “I figured you'd think it would be better to keep my private life...well, private.”

“You're not a spy, Rogers,” she huffs good-naturedly, clapping him on the shoulder. “You're already in the public eye. Why not use that exposure for something good?”

Steve's grin is so blinding that she brings her hand up to shield her eyes. “Dammit, Rogers, we've talked about this!”

“Right, sorry,” he quips, before swiveling to fix Barnes with one of his I'm so innocent and handsome, listen to me looks. Barnes doesn't look impressed, but he shrugs.

“Do whatever you're gonna do. You know I have your back, always.”

Steve's grin turns wolfish, and Natasha takes this as her signal to haul ass out of the room. 

–

The next day Natasha sends Steve a link to Frank Ocean's wikipedia page.

– 

Steve picks Ellen to do his whole “baring his soul to the entire nation” thing, because Steve Rogers is a lot of things, but he's not subtle. Not when it comes to stuff like this.

Ellen, of course, is delighted to have him. She wears a Captain America shirt under her blazer and can't seem to stop grinning. 

The team sits in the audience, trying and failing to stay disguised. Tony is wearing a fake beard over his goatee, and holds a bag of movie theatre popcorn. Thor is wearing his cape.

(Steve had gotten choked up when they'd told him _We're gonna come, Rogers, hope you don't mind. Wouldn't want you to do something this ballsy without us there to back you up._ Okay, so Tony had said that part. 

Barnes had held his hand the whole car ride over, while Steve looked like he was going to barf up pancakes all over Tony's Benz. “Hey,” Barnes had muttered. The rest of the team tried to look like they weren't listening to the conversation.

“What?” Steve asked, distracted. 

And then, it happened. “I've been thinkin' bout you, ooh yeah yeah yeah,” Barnes crooned, off key.

Steve guffawed, and suddenly everything was going to be alright.)

Ellen starts off by asking the usual stuff, touching his muscles, and so on. She challenges him to a dance battle, which he somehow wins by doing a passable jitterbug. Natasha looks over just in time to see Tony mouthing _What the fuck._

Finally, they settle down in their chairs for the real discussion. Ellen leans forward, an unusually serious expression on her face, and says “Now, I think there was something in particular you wanted to talk about.”

“Yeah,” Steve says, and lets out a sigh. “I wanna talk about my best friend.”

“You mean James Buchanan Barnes.”

“Yeah. Bucky. He...he gave me the okay to talk about this stuff today. I was real nervous, because it's not something I've ever really been able to talk about. Where I'm from, you know, _the past_ ,” he looks into the camera wryly, “It happened, you just didn't talk about it.”

The audience buzzes. Anyone with half a brain can see where this is going. Natasha is pressing her nails into her palm so hard she's leaving marks. _Goddammit_ , she thinks. _I really care about these idiots._

“I started thinking about the men I served beside. The thousands of brave soldiers who died doing what was right. Death in war isn't dignified, either. People died in the mud. They died in the rain. They died choking on their own blood. Ain't no way to do that and keep your dignity.”

The audience is silent.

“And so I started thinking. I wondered, when I woke up, what we fought for. What did men and women really die for? Did they die so that men like Martin Luther King Jr. and Harvey Milk could get shot? Did they die so that the government could discriminate against its citizens? Did they die so that the government could tell its citizens how to live and how to love?”

Steve looks sadder than she has ever seen him.

“I'd like to think not,” he says softly. “I'd like to think that their bravery still means something. I'd like to think that bravery still means something. That the things people do still have an impact. So what I'm about to do, I do for the men and women I knew growing up who couldn't be themselves, who didn't have the choice. I'm doing this for the men I served alongside, who gave their lives but couldn't ever live life to the fullest. I'm doing this for the kids who end up homeless because their parents choose bigotry over love.”

Ellen is crying. As a matter of fact, so is Natasha.

“I'm in love with my best friend,” Steve says simply. “And there ain't nothing wrong with that.”

He smiles gently at Ellen, who is discreetly blowing her nose, and asks, “Now didn't we have a special musical guest?”

“Oh yeah!” she exclaims. “Here by special request—from Cap himself, I'll have you know—is the one, the only, Frank Ocean!”

In the audience, Barnes shrieks like a preteen girl at a One Direction concert.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so if you didn't know, Frank Ocean is publicly bi. "Bad Religion" is a song about his unrequited feelings for another man. Title is taken from "Pilot Jones" on his Channel Orange album. If u wanna cry tears go listen to the song "Swim Good."
> 
> if you're reading this frank when is ur album coming out


End file.
